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Maybe I'm Amazed

Hi folks! I've been playing lead guitar for 40 years and singing baritone range stuff here and there, but something like this song was WAY out of my range. I'd appreciate any advice regarding how stay on pitch when I sing higher stuff. http://www.singsnap.com/karaoke/r/b9830a5bd

Good job on this, barthy. Some interesting things about this. When I listen to your voice, there's something happening on the M's and N's. As information, M's, N's, and NG's happen in your nasopharynx. It's sounding a little stopped up, as if you have a cold. Often, that happens because people are trying to avoid "sounding nasal". This thing about that is, if you don't let the M's, N's, and NG's RING in your nasopharynx, you soud like you hab uh bad code. Like you have a bad cold or congestion.

You are reaching the high pitches of this song (this is a hard song to sing, by the way). But when you are on those pitches they just aren't resonant enough. They're muted a bit.

My opinion or theory is that you are holding back, afraid of making it be proclaimed to be "too nasal". Do you hear what I'm talking about when you listen to this? Something is happening that is suppressing those notes just a skoshe. They're on-pitch, but not ringing naturally. They need to ring and ping, really bright.

Also, you're doing a great job of reducing the girth to get up to those notes. Honestly, because I know this song and have heard it on a lot of demos, I was bracing myself for you to choke the high notes. You didn't. You nailed the pitches. Now I want you to nail the tonality and let it ring, with no suppression.

I think you're going to find that by allowing the stream of air to split and come out of the mouth and nose simultaneously. You may have to fool around with balancing the amounts a bit. But you just "direct" the air (sound) as you want it to go. See if you can monkey around with this and find a sweeter balance. If you can go for trying to free that "suppression" of ring in those notes, you'll have a fine-sounding song.

No, you're not Paul McCartney, but you're you, and you can do a good job on this song. Good job on stepping out of the baritone box, into the spotlight. You just have some fine adjustments to make.

Thanks Bob! That's the sort of analysis I was hoping for. Yes, the pollen is terrible in Seattle this year, but I think my weird tone is a matter of technique because my voice sounds better on lower notes. I will definitely experiment with your suggestions. Also, for reference, here's a song in a lower register.http://www.singsnap.com/karaoke/r/b060b52bd

Right. I hear little to none of the issues on Don't Be Cruel, that I'm hearing on the high notes of Maybe I'm Amazed. So that's an indication that when you go up to touch those higher notes, some of your passages that need to be open for those notes to ring, aren't letting the sound through.

Try "putting the sound" on those notes "up in the attic" of your vocal tract, that being resonant spaces up in your nasopharynx, sinuses, "behind the eyes", up in the forehead, through the top of your head, and other metaphors that singers use to get the sound ringing and sustaining more, up high.

Ken has sometimes said he imagines a "C" shape that he "aims" the sound at various targets (in the head as he ascends in pitch. That C would be a profile view, with the face and nose being on the right, and the C shape being the vocal tract, or "inside of the skull" with the resonance following up the C as the pitch gets higher.

This idea just helps us to become aware that the sound concentration, or points of resonance, move upwards as the pitch rises. A coarse view of this is the concept of Chest resonance being felt in the sternum and head resonance being felt in the skull. A more finely-detailed version of this is that resonance is a continuum, and varies as the pitch, constantly rising as the pitch rises and falling as the pitch is brought back down.

Ping is king. The Bright sound is the only sound that truly grows the voice. Follow the resonance.